Commentary: Villanova showing its pride in Big East play

Villanova's Maurice Sutton (25), Tony Chennault (5) and JayVaughn Pinkston (22) celebrate from the bench during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game against Georgetown, Wednesday, March 6, 2013, in Philadelphia. Villanova won 67-57. (AP Photo/Michael Perez)

PHILADELPHIA — The Big East coaches looked at the players, the recent history and the odds, and then they decided that this wasn’t going to be Villanova’s year.

The Wildcats might have looked too young, or too small, or too sideways after a 13-19 season. They might have appeared to have been smothered by a conference that had grown bigger, if not more eastern. They might have been considered stale, a shriveled conference power.

Mostly, to the coaches anyway, the Wildcats looked like the 12th best team in the 15-team conference, ahead of only three non-footballs, five spots behind Directional Florida, nowhere in the discussion with Syracuse, or with Louisville, or with Georgetown.

That was 31 regular-season games ago, including a 67-57 victory over Georgetown Wednesday at the Wells Fargo Center. That was before Ryan Arcidiacono became a likely conference All-Rookie team guard, before Mouphtaou Yarou finished his development as a valuable big-time big man, before the Wildcats showed what can happen when defense is played with passion.

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That was before Jay Wright completed one of the best regular-season seasons, achievement for achievement, in his coaching career.

“I’ve said this since Media Day,” said John Thompson III, Georgetown’s coach. “You have to pick because the league says we have to pick. But when you take a look at who might be No. 1 and who might be last, it is such a magnification of small differences. It is very little. So you are just picking names. I don’t think it’s a surprise that a team that was picked 12th and is now seventh or eighth. That’s not a surprise.”

The Wildcats have finished their regular season at 19-12, 10-8 in the conference where the coaches expected them to accomplish nothing close. That’s an achievement, muffled as it is destined to be in the newer reality of college basketball. That’s because records and in-season accomplishments and whatever unexpected joy a program can provide will be clouded by months and months and months of the only thing that now seems to matter: Bracketology.

That’s why the Georgetown game was considered more than just 40 minutes of entertainment, more than a chance for Villanova to challenge itself against the No. 5 team in the country. It was considered vital to the very NCAA Tournament chances that the Wildcats were never supposed to experience in the first place.

Georgetown entered in first place in the Big East and pounced to a 7-0 lead, quickly appearing to provide justification for so many empty seats. But Villanova settled and began playing intense defense, denying every passing lane, vacuuming defensive rebounds. It’s what the Wildcats do: They ignore any sign, implied or otherwise, that they don’t belong in any championship conversation.

Not that it ever allowed it become a secret, but Villanova proved that once before against Georgetown.

“It just shows how this conference is,” Thompson said. “There are a lot of good teams in this conference. Villanova will be seventh, eighth — a very good team, just like nine, 10, 11, 12 are very, very good teams. That just speaks to the strength of the conference.”

Now it is off to Madison Square Garden and the Big East tournament, the last of its kind. Soon, the conference will be retro-fitted to a basketball-first, non-football, made-for-wintertime TV product in which Villanova should fit nicely.

The Wildcats might have to win at least a game in New York to reach the NCAA Tournament. Maybe two. Maybe none. But they did beat Louisville when it was No. 5, Syracuse when it was No. 3, and Georgetown, which won’t be No. 5 the next time there is a poll. But that’s what will matter, because that’s what always matters, not just in March, but throughout the season: NCAA Tournament...in or out?

Yet for one night at the end of one season, after one very good Big East game, it should have been enough to look at a regular season that was not supposed to be and realize what should have been evident, back in October.

Villanova never should have been considered the fourth-worst team in any conference, no matter how balanced, no matter how deep.